When we started our journey in
content marketing, we never envisioned our blog would grow to 35,000-plus page
views on average each month.We wrote
articles because we wanted consumers and businesses to understand the sea
change that was taking place in Internet marketing. From our humble beginning of one blog a week
to the phenomenal following our blog has acquired, we’re amazed and grateful
for what has transpired.

Understand that
our blog’s growth is not some random, viral occurrence. Its remarkable growth is based on excellence,
consistency and science. We measure everything we try and we keep the elements that works.

To access and read the other three articles in this series, type
the word "marketing" in the search bar at the above right of this
page.

There is no doubt that blogging
is now becoming the new go-to medium on the Internet for printed content. More and more people are turning to blogs for
their information. There are numerous
routes to access these blogs: search engine news services, social media,
curated posts, RSS feeds, and of course, all the major news networks, reporters
and columnists provide blogs. Blogs also
provide more credibility than search ads, banner ads, and in-column news ads. Yet many businesses are slow to adopt this
dynamic medium. Whether it’s because it’s
time-consuming or requires specific skills to pursue, nonetheless, there’s no
doubt blogging will be in every business's future in one way or another. This article provides the lessons learned and
best practices we’ve developed in 15 years of writing articles and blogs. More importantly, it covers the marketing
secrets we’ve developed over the last five years during the explosion of information
that blogging has provided. So read on to
learn Working the Web to Win’s lessons
and best practices about blogging.

Blogging and Current Content

If you’re not providing a unique,
authoritative blog post/article each week, you’re missing out on a huge
audience and tons of visitor traffic. Google
and other search engines place a significant value on this kind of
authoritative content.More importantly,
most people do, too.

Unique content is king.A newly written, high-quality, relevant,
timely and published article/blog post will outperform most curated blogs or
other recycled articles both on your blog site and in your social nets. This unique, authoritative content is the most
valuable item you can post to your social networks.It proves you‘re adding value to the world
and that you’re sharing your knowledge and expertise, thus making you a
credible source of information.

You Need to Check out Blogger

If you’re going to use a blogging
platform, we recommend Google’s Blogger for three important reasons. First,
it’s owned by Google, and we believe Google likes, understands, and knows how
to index its own properties. Secondly,
Google indexes Blogger every day, which means your blog content will be entered
into its search engines daily.And
third, it’s easy to use, has built in analytics, and has wide industry support
for plugins and add-ons that work very well.

Long Copy is Better than Short

For the longest time, I was told
that people only read short blogs and articles. However, my current research and that of others directly
contradicts this idea.We’ve found that
the key elements to getting your article read are its “quality,” “relevance,”
“timeliness,” and “usefulness.”Also,
your ability to get your message out through various distribution channels
plays an important role.Articles of any
length will be read and shared if they are of good quality. If they contain all four of the previously
mentioned elements, all the more so.

I
can tell you from our own experience that medium to long-length articles
receive as many, if not more, reads than their shorter counterparts. Especially if they are of an “evergreen”
nature and provide a comprehensive view of a given subject. I believe this occurs because long articles
are like getting a free eBook without having to pay for it. As a matter of fact, longer articles lend
themselves to the production of a full sized eBook. It doesn’t take long to produce enough content
to create a full-sized eBook, if you consistently write high-quality articles
in related subject areas over a years’ time. If you wrote 52 articles in a year (that’s one
per week, you’d have enough content to create a book of 100 pages or more. You can then use this book as a money maker on
Amazon.com, or at Barnes and Nobles, or
as an incentive to get prospects to give you their contact information.

Consistency Wins in
Audience/Follower Development

Consistency is extremely
important. We’ve found that our clients who
are able to consistently meet social media postings and blog publishing
deadlines out-perform clients who don’t ― as much as four to tenfold.When a client drags their feet on approving
an article (that we’ve ghost written for them), or they try to micromanage the
creative process by being too restrictive about the content, the production
process comes to a stop.This also stunts
their audience growth and their fan base’s perception about the company’s
consistency and credibility. Readers
like regularity.

If you like a product
(a blog is a product) and you anti-up for it either by subscribing to it or
just looking for it on Twitter, and then suddenly it doesn’t show up, the news
medium itself loses credibility. In
other words, if I put money in a vending machine and nothing comes out, I’ll go
to a different (better) machine. Also,
consider the fact that your blog articles are authoritative content for all
your social networks.No blog, no
authoritative content.And no authoritative content means you’re not
adding much value to what your are posting. Adding value increases your credibility in
your clients’ and prospects’ eyes. One
last benefit of consistency, it facilitates building a larger library of
published articles that will keep on working for you years into the future. The larger your library, the more recyclable
content you have to work with.

Principles Outperforms Trendiness

Evergreen articles will generally
out-perform seasonal or non-evergreen articles at almost a five-to-one ratio.They’ll also keep producing page views more
often, long after other the types of articles’ draw has faded away.

Clients who have a large number
of evergreen articles in their library can take advantage of recycled posting
in a big way.The articles still need to
be high-quality, timely and be relevant to their fan base.Once a client reaches around 28 evergreen
articles, they can begin recycling their previous articles in their social
posts. This will easily double the
number of blog page views they’ll receive. When their library of evergreen articles
reaches 90+ posts, they can recycle them daily. This will make a really big impact on their
total page views and can produce 10 times the page views than their previous
efforts.

Multimedia is the Smart Bomb

Combination campaigns that use
lots of multimedia venues (at least five elements) coupled with lots of social
posts, will more easily produce Page One organic position than any single, dual
or triple element campaign. We design
our campaigns to attack the competition’s weaknesses. If they’re weak in video, we produce more quality relevant videos.If the completion is weak in social posts or
blogging, we attack those venues. However,
we will always do this with a multimedia approach with at least four elements
in play at once (assuming the client can afford four elements).

Email Marketing = Touch Marketing
When Implemented the Right Way

Don’t neglect direct email
marketing. This is one of the best touch
marketing elements you can engage in. It’s
very important that you don’t spam people by sending them unsolicited email. It can not only get you branded as a spammer
(which can carry hefty fines) it can also get your domain name blacklisted as
well. If you use email as an informational
touch piece (i.e., an email newsletter) you can use it to build credibility and
to remain top-of-mind with your customers and prospects. Make sure that the bulk of your newsletters
and email contain useful information, not just a sales pitch of your latest
specials. Build trust by creating content that is 90 % informational and
entertaining, with the last 10% including product and service specials.

Video Content Marketing Adds Sizzle to Your Blog

Today, video is more important on
the Web than ever.YouTube has become a
social network with billions of views per day. Now that people can leave comments and share
their videos, it has become more viral than ever before.Many businesses are ignoring this venue
because of the perceived time and cost it takes for quality video production. This means it’s also a huge opportunity for
many businesses to out-position their competition because many just aren’t
posting video content.A great way to
create videos is to make short vignettes (90 seconds to three minutes long) that
follow the content in your blogs. This
makes your video a “vlog” and a great add-in for your blog. This type of cross pollination expands the
effectiveness of your articles and also give you a new social network and
medium to grow an audience with.

Facebook believes in the
importance of video and has spent a considerable amount of time and money
revving up their infrastructure to handle video.Facebook’s video views are now starting to
rival YouTube’s and surpass other video portals such as Vimeo.

Our "Social Slam Dunk" ... Check it Out.

In this article, I provided many
examples of the lessons learned and best practices we’ve discovered in our many
years of Internet publishing, blogging and content marketing. Using these best practices will help businesses
avoid the most common mistakes and allow them to take advantages of tips and
techniques that produce the most bang for the time invested.

If you'd like a free copy of our eBook, "Internet Marketing Tips for the 21st Century," please fill in the form below and we'll email it to you. Your information is always kept private and is never sold.

Hector Cisneros is COO and
director of Social Media Marketing at Working the Web to Win, an
award-winning Internet marketing company based in Jacksonville, Florida.He is also co-host of the weekly Internet
radio show, "Working
the Web To Win" on BlogTalkRadio.com, which airs every Tuesday at 4
p.m. Eastern. Hector is a syndicated writer and published author of “60 Seconds to Success.”

Social media is a revolution whose time has come. Without a doubt, the advent of social media
has dramatically changed the landscape of the Internet forever. The changes are many and constant. Despite all the wonderful benefits social
networks bring, few business understand the benefits, much less understand how
to use this medium. This
article will expose the many mistakes and myths business have about social
media and social networking. The reader
will come away with many useful tips and techniques that will help their
business make the most of this evolutionary resource and marketing medium. Pay close attention to the most common mistakes. Implement proven techniques to grow your networks and spread your
positive message, as we explore the best practices and lessons learned from the
last seven years of the social media revolution.

Compiled from 20
Years of Marketing Success

Did you know that most of the
websites that exist today were created more than four years ago? And, for the
most part, many website developers and designers haven’t upgraded what they
consider to be key elements for a web page.Many still consider large banners at “the top
of the fold” to still be important, most leave out critical home page elements
needed to convey trust and credibility to visitors. This article is part of a four part series to
help clients create a unified and coherent marketing campaign. It delves into
the best practices we’ve discovered during our successful marketing campaigns
over the last 20 years. We put particular emphasis on the important changes
that have taken place online in the last five years. So let’s jump right in a
look at the best practices we’ve discovered for web page setup and pertaining
to SEO.

Today our world is evolving at breakneck speeds. All aspects of our lives are changing right before our eyes.The Internet, in particular, is moving faster than most segments of our lives. Marketing has moved on from a single dimensional communications medium to a world of multi-dimensional and bi-directional communications mediums. Newspapers, TV, radio, magazines and even billboards are moving to the Internet as part of their communications draw. People have access to their computers, (smartphones and smart devices) 24/7 and use them everywhere they go.

How do you get found in a world
of billions of competitors? That’s what
most bloggers ask me when I meet with them to discuss their marketing needs. Most blogs are like billboards in the desert. Few, if anyone, reads their great literary works because their
blog is like a needle in a mountainous hay stack.

This article will explain how any
blogger can market their blog and articles to numbers that are objects of most writers'
wildness dreams. It will share with the
reader how to maximize their blog’s ability to get found, get shared and get
read, all in less than 180 days! We have
used this method for our blog and many of our clients’ blogs as well and it has
always worked. With the information
listed here we have grown our audience from nothing, to over 25,000 page views
a month, (or 300,000 page views a year) employing this method.

First, some basics: Your blog and
articles have to have certain characteristics. They have to be of sufficient quality; proofed
for grammar and spelling; look good with pictures and other multimedia elements;
and they have to be focused, concise and provide useful information or content
that entertains.(See the previous
articles in this series, “The
Magic Formula for Blogging Success: a Training Series for Bloggers - Part 1”and “Learning
the Tricks of the Trade - Part 2 of Blogging 101.”) Once your commitment and quality is up to
snuff, you will need to increase your numbers. What numbers you may ask? Your B.F.I.S.G.E.
numbers! This stands for Blog posts,
Followers, Influences, Sharing, Groups and Email.

Getting the Numbers on Your Side

Blog posts – How many blog posts
you create and publish will help determine if you’re successful. You can’t have lots of page views and loyal
readers without something for them to read. The two articles I already mentioned will help
you with this. So will reading “How to Triple your Blog Post Views in 60 Days or Less.”

Followers – You need lots of
social network followers to read and spread your message. Actively invite
followers in all of your social networks to follow you and do the same for
them. Adding just 25 new followers a day will net you around 2,000 new
followers a year or more. If you want to
learn more about growing a following read “The
Twelve Secrets of Social Media Success” and other articles listed in this
blog.

Influencers – Every industry has its
leaders. Today, it’s easier than ever to
find who they are. If you use Twitter or
Facebook, do a search on some of the keywords for your industry and make a note
of those people and companies you find that have a large following. They are
the influencers. Be nice to them,
promote them, ask for their opinions, and share your work with them. You’ll be
surprised at how being helpful to them, in turn, usually ends up helping you.
Check out my previous article, “How
to Win Friends and Influence People in the 21st Century - Take Two” to get
more ideas.

Sharing by back-linking – Every
author wants their blogs and articles to be accepted and read. Help others find
their audience. The law of reciprocity
will reward you for doing so. This is especially true if your related articles
listed are of good quality and the authors are industry influencers. Get a blogging buddy. Find a way to guest author on each other’s
blogs. Make this a habit and grow this
guest blog circle. Share their work
along with yours; sometimes rubbing shoulders with others in your industry
(even competitors) will pay huge dividends in the growth of your following. A great book I recommend is the “The Go-Giver” by Bob Burg and
John David Mann. It’s worth the read and
the audio book is very well acted. Get
it, you'll thank me.

Groups – To get lots of exposure,
you need access to lots of people. The
problem with growing your social network organically is that it takes time. Most of the larger social networks like LinkedIn,
Facebook and Google+ have groups you can join without actually having these
people following you. These groups can
be huge (hundreds of thousands of people), and by joining them, many will read
your posts. Remember to reciprocate and
engage the members. Don’t try to sell to
them, ask their opinion and help them whenever you can. I talked about groups for the first time in my
article, “How
to Leverage LinkedIn for Business & Career Enhancement.” It covers many of the ways I use LinkedIn to
share my knowledge and connect with others. Check it out if you love LinkedIn, it will
help you make the most of that network.

Email marketing – Email marketing
has been around for a long time now. And to some extent, its reputation has
been tarnished by people who abuse this marketing medium. Having said that, email still works and it can
work magic for many who use it as a touch marketing medium with opt-in clients
and prospects. What definitely doesn’t
work is spamming people. As a matter of
fact, that’s a good way to get your domain and blog blacked listed. Make sure your email newsletters and email
blasts provide useful content. Don’t try
and hard sell your subscribers. Educate, entertain and encourage them to come
back. Along with this, add in a
compelling offer for your free eBook or product special at the end of your mail
piece. Do this at least once a quarter. We do it weekly for our BlogTalkRadio show
and blog, and it will help grow your following and reputation.

Other Methods

How to Use Conventional Media – We
still recommend conventional advertising for many businesses. We ask our
clients to evaluate its effectiveness and return on investment, but most importantly,
we ask them to connect their conventional advertising to their web presence. Make sure your TV, radio, newspaper, magazine,
billboards and other conventional advertising media direct traffic to your blog
or website by listing their URLs on the advertisements.

Promoted Post and Pay Per Click/View
– Finding a great place to promote your blog, or website is easy today. You
need not look any further than the social nets you're already a member of. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and
others all provide cost-effective means for promoting your blog. Clicks can start as low as 50 cents. Also, there are many sites that you can buy
banner space or other promotion. Some of
the directories we use to promote our business include Klout, Twitter Counter
and Tweinds. Plus, you can also
negotiate banner space (or even swaps) with other bloggers. This, along with
guest blogging on a regular basis, will get you additional exposure.

30 is Your First Magic Number

Once you have built a library of
about 30 evergreen articles, you’re poised to make your first leap in growth. Frequency is the name of the game here. However, you can’t just all of a sudden start
hammering your audience with dozens of the same post curated in twelve
different ways without losing some followers. Once you reach 30 articles, you can post an
article one to three times a day with different curated introductions to it to
increase your page views. Also the
frequency of newly released articles will make a big difference. The minimum you need is one new article each
week. Two are better and creating three
new authoritative published per week is the bomb. Recycling your
published articles is a must because your social networks need constant
feeding. Understand that within each social network are subgroups of members
that use the social networks at different times of day. Experiment with posting during different times
and with different curated intro verbiage. Measure everything and then stick to what
works best until your research tells you otherwise.

To keep growing you’ll need to
double your number of blog posts. Each
time your published library doubles, you can increase the number of times you
recycle your posts. Your long-term goal is to provide around ten different
authoritative, high quality, evergreen recycled posts per day and about two to
three new authoritative blog posts per week (which also get posted to your
social networks).

I’ve been asked, “Is there a
limit to how far this method can take you?” My answer is, “The only limit you have are set by you!” The marketplace is growing and the marketplace does not set
a growth limit. In essence, there are no limits ― you do the math.

In this article, I listed the
steps needed to grow your blog's audience into tens of thousands of followers. I covered the quality needed, more than eight
marketing techniques, and the methodology, resources and schedule you’ll need
to adhere to, in order to be wildly successful.

You can also type “Blogging” or “Social Medial marketing” in the search box at
the top right-hand side of this blog to find even more.

If you found this article useful, please share it with friends, family,
coworkers and associates. If you have
something to add related to this article or have a different opinion, place
them in the Comments section below. It’s
been my pleasure sharing this information with you.

That's my opinion; I look forward to hearing yours.

On behalf of all of us at Working the Web to Win, here's wishing you and yours
a very Happy Holidays … Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s and of course, a Merry Christmas!

If you'd like a free copy of our eBook, "Internet Marketing Tips for the 21st Century," please fill in the form below and we'll email it to you. Your information is always kept private and is never sold.Hector Cisneros is a partner, COO and Social Media Director for the
award-winning, Internet-based marketing firm, Working the Web to Win, in
Jacksonville, FL. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn,
and YouTube.
He’s also the co-host of BlogTalkRadio’s “Working the Web to Win,”
where he and Working the Web to Win’s co-founder, Carl Weiss, make working the
web to win simple for every business. Additionally, Hector is a syndicated
writer on Ezine
Online and is an active blogger (including ghost writing). He's a
published author of two books, "60
Seconds to Success"(available at Amazon and B&N),
and "Internet Marketing for the
21st Century," which you can get by filling out the form above. He’s
also the co-author of the book, “Working
the Web to Win,” which is now available on Amazon.com.

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By Hector Cisneros I have been actively networking in a number of organizations since the early 1980’s. My experience, tells me that most...

Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy - Your privacy is important to us. We are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to information you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contacts from you. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone. We will use your information to respond to you only, regarding the reason you contacted us. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization, other than as necessary to fulfill your request. Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about our FREE eBooks, new services, specials, or changes to this privacy policy. If you want to unsubscribe from our newsletter or remove access to our FREE eBooks, you can unsubscribe when you receive our newsletters, or email me at, hectorc@workingthewebtowin.com with the heading Unscribe from Newsletter and Free eBooks, listing your the email address you subscribed with. You can also text me at 904-712-9355 with the same information or send us a letter to unsubscribe at Working the Web to Win, 3740 Beach Blvd. #300 Jacksonville Fl. 32207. Again please make sure you tell us the email address you subscribed with.